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THE JACKSON HERALD
WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 2017
Commerce to get 4 buses
By Ron Bridgeman
Commerce Schools will replace
half its buses for the 2017-18 year.
One of those buses will be bought
and be delivered in May. The other
three buses will be leased from
Yancey Bus Sales & Service, which
has an office in Jackson County.
The city school district will pay
$57,373 a year for five years for the
three leased buses.
Supt. Joy Tolbert recommended
the district lease the buses and the
board unanimously agreed.
Commerce has eight buses it uses
daily, Tolbert has told the board.
It agreed earlier this spring to buy
one new bus for $95,000.
Tolbert told the board at its work
session last week it could lease the
buses for five years for the same
price. It will own the three buses
when the five years are up.
Buses typically last 10 or more
years.
The BOE and Tolbert have dis
cussed the severe needs in the trans
portation department for months.
Two of the leased buses will be
72-passenger buses, typical vehi
cles for delivering students. The
third bus will be smaller, 48 pas
sengers and will have a lift for
wheel chairs for special education
students. The system has a lift bus
now that is nearly 20 years old.
The money to pay the lease will
come from ELOST money. Tolbert
said.
“All the stars aligned on this
(lease),” Tolbert said. She explained
that the ELOST funding and the
five-year term of the lease were
nearly the same.
If the lease went into the next
ELOST period, the school district
would be taking the chance that
a new referendum would pass to
maintain the ELOST.
The BOE also heard a report from
Jason Anderson with ABM. That
company is installing new equip
ment that will guarantee the school
district will reduce its consumption
of electricity and water.
Anderson told the board he
expects the work to be done in July.
Much of the work will be done in
June, he said.
Work on some heating and air
conditioning units and water foun
tains will be done after school is
out, Anderson said.
He warned the board that the
controls for the system, primarily
heating and cooling, will need to
be “tweaked for almost 12 months”
until everything can be balanced.
In other business, the board:
•heard the district has reserve
funds of about $2.7 million. Ann
Stukey, the financial director, said
she expects the year-end reserves to
be more than $2 million.
•heard the ELOST reserves are
nearly $1.2 million. Supt. Joy
Tolbert told the board the district
received more than $110,000 in
April. That’s “great for this time of
the year,” she said.
•viewed a video at its work ses
sion produced by the high school’s
environmental science class about
its spring break trip to Cumber
land Island. The class cleaned and
maintained four miles of trails on
the island.
•approved fundraisers for the
competitive cheerleading squad and
the high school girls’ basketball
team.
•heard Tolbert announce gradua
tion for CHS will be at 8 p.m. May
19 on the football field. The first
day of school for 2017-18 will be
July 28.
SPLOST money ahead of estimated revenue
Jackson County’s SPLOST V
revenue, now 69 months into the
72-month collection period, is 18
percent ahead of the estimated rev
enue, according to figures compiled
by Trey Wood, Jackson County
finance director.
The total SPLOST payment for
April, sales made in March, was
$848,881. That is divided among
Jackson County government and its
nine incorporated cities.
The SPLOST money for the last
three months is $2,355 million.
SPLOST is special purpose local
option sales tax. It is used for capital
projects and debt service.
Collections for SPLOST V will
end June 30.
The local option sales tax revenue
is nearly on budget for the fiscal
year. Revenue is behind budget by 1
percent, $12,231.
For April, the collections were
$509,338. It is $110,895 more than
the collections for the same month
in 2016.
The budgeted revenue for 2017
is $5.7 million. The collections for
2017 are behind budget by 1 percent.
The budget for LOST in fiscal year
2017 is $5,700,000.
Both taxes are one-percent sales
taxes.
The difference in the report
ed amounts of the two one-percent
local sales tax (LOST and SPLOST)
checks is because for LOST, Jack-
son County and each of its nine
municipalities get individual checks
from DOR, whereas with SPLOST,
DOR remits the entire amount to the
county, which apportions it out to the
municipalities on a population-based
formula.
In addition to LOST and SPLOST,
the three school systems in Jack-
son County share in the proceeds of
an education local option sales tax
(ELOST) according to an enroll
ment-based formula.
Chick-fil-A gets green
light in Braselton
By Alex Pace
Chick-fil-A is coming to Braselton.
The Braselton Town Council recently approved a
conditional use permit for the popular fast food restau
rant. Chick-fil-A will be located on the Highway 211
and Thompson Mill Road corner lot within the High-
pointe Development.
The conditional use allows a drive-thru, which com
pany representatives say is necessary. Sixty percent of
Chick-fil-A’s business is done through a drive-thru,
according to civil engineer Ralph Davie.
Jim Joedecke and Dale Shapiro, both opponents
of the request, voiced their concerns with the new
restaurant causing an uptick in traffic on Thompson
Mill Road, which is mostly residential. Both said the
proposed site is inappropriate for the restaurant.
Joedecke and Shapiro aren’t alone in their opposi
tion. The two presented petitions and affidavits from
community members who were apparently opposed to
the site being located on Thompson Mill Road.
But Chick-fil-A representative John Mark Wood said
the company isn’t looking at any other spots.
“This is the site,” he said. “If Chick-fil-A is coming
to Braselton, it’s this site.”
Shapiro said she’s worried about traffic spillover onto
Thompson Mill Road. She estimates that if traffic were
backed up within the Chick-fil-A parking lot only 7-8
more cars can fit on the Highpointe internal access
road before traffic spills out onto Thompson Mill.
“I am very concerned the cars are going to back up
outside and onto Thompson Mill Road,” she said.
Shapiro proposed that the site be relocated, or
restrictions be put on the Thompson Mill Road
entrance.
Both Davie and Wood said the restaurant’s dual-ap
proach line, along with face-to-face ordering, express
pick-up and call-ahead curbside will ease traffic con
gestion.
“We would never have traffic out to Thompson Mill
Road, ever,” Wood said, noting the company would
hire law enforcement if necessary.
Wood noted the restaurant is designed for a capacity
much larger than the site is expected to reach.
Other concerns included the lack of a traffic study on
Thompson Mill Road and the proposed signage.
Not all community members were opposed, though.
Caleb Musser, a long-time resident in the area, said
Chick-fil-A will bring quality growth. Musser also
touted the company’s community involvement and
support for schools and religious youth groups.
The request was approved with several conditions
regulating the design, signage, parking lot lights and
streetscape improvements.
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